Jul. 9, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

An ex-Catholic priest who years ago was removed from public ministry for alleged sexual misconduct with a boy is scheduled to plead guilty this month to child pornography charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and a court filing.

Timothy Murray, 63, a former pastor of St. Edith parish in Livonia, is to enter his plea July 24 before U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts, according to a filing in Detroit federal court Tuesday. It’s not clear what charges he will plead guilty to.

According to court documents, a 2012 child pornography investigation led Department of Homeland Security agents to Murray’s Novi home, where they discovered a stash of sexually explicit videos of boys ages 6-16.

Murray, who was home during the December search, volunteered to go to the police station, where he made several admissions, the documents show:

■ He downloaded child pornography off the Internet and had roughly 500 images and videos.

■ He was removed from the ministry of the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2004 because he had sexual contact with a minor: He touched a 13-year-old boy’s genitalia in the child’s bedroom about 30 years ago.

According to court records, Murray was never criminally charged over the earlier incident. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office declined to investigate the claims because the statute of limitations had expired, an archdiocese spokesman said in 2004. The Archdiocesan Review Board, which received the complaint, commissioned an investigation, put him on leave and eventually removed him from the ministry.

Murray was ordained in 1977. He then served at St. Dorothy in Warren, St. Veronica in Eastpointe, St. Linus in Dearborn Heights, St. Raphael in Garden City and St. Martin de Porres in Warren before becoming pastor of St. Edith in 2000.

In 2004, when the sexual misconduct allegation surfaced against Murray, a letter from the Detroit archdiocese was read to parishioners at St. Edith, telling them that Murray had been placed on administrative leave.

“I think it was a little shock and probably a lot of sadness,” youth minister Colleen Misiak said at the time. “Nobody knows the bottom line or where it's coming from. People have to go home and just think about it.”

Murray is free on bond. Neither he nor his lawyer were readily available for comment.